Abstract
Urea is a simple compound of low molecular weight that has appeared at the crossroads of scientific discovery. It was first synthesized by Friedrich Wöhler in 1828, a landmark achievement that helped to erase the mystical barriers between organic and inorganic chemistry. Wöhler showed that urea, an organic compound, could be synthesized from ammonium cyanate, an inorganic compound. The synthesis of urea, representing a link between organic and inorganic chemistry was perhaps more significant than the synthesis of DNA. Although technically more difficult, the latter was accepted more readily by the scientific community than was the synthesis of urea.
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© 1991 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Depner, T.A. (1991). Urea Metabolism: Clinical Chemistry of Urea. In: Prescribing Hemodialysis. Developments in Nephrology, vol 29. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1509-4_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1509-4_2
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